Mecha Mooks: Oh, indeed. These are the actual AI fighting robots (“autonomous mechagrunts”) which occupy the spot in the military food chain between the Attack Drones and the actual people in the command chain. They also do the majority of the fighting, the eldrae with their long lives and slow
“My dear ephemerals, in observing your broadcasts (while I appreciate your martial enthusiasm) I really must question some of your underlying assumptions, both practical and theological. Over the course of my fifteen hundred years, I’ve killed more gods than you chaps claim to have. If yours really is on
Mind-state transmission received; 3.263564 exp 16 octets validated. Body reconstruction data [archive pointer]. Accoutrement construction data [catalog pointer], [catalog pointer], [archive pointer]. Augmented reality object code received; 2.465542 exp 10 octets validated. Scan for hostile code complete; none found. Identity confirmed: Acté Cyprium-ith-Réyne [UCID and mindprint match]. Reinstantiating…
Attack Drone: Hell, yes! From personal protection drones, through the combat drones that make up the larger part of pretty much any fireteam (half-a-dozen slaved to each mechagrunt), through the wingdrones accompanying aerospace fighters, to the Imperial Navy’s AKV-drones, the Imperial military (and mercenaries, and law enforcement, and private
Asteroid Thicket: Averted. Space does not work that way. Any time you see asteroids that close together, it’s because someone’s moved them there for a purpose – which means, if you try flying through them, your biggest concern is not hitting them, it’s local traffic control wanting to
TANEV (QUAVE REPUBLIC) – The government today refused the extradition of Ferlyn Kazesh, the Crescent Bioproducts executive responsible for the Taniris chemical disaster, to the Empire. [The disaster at Taniris earlier this year was the result of a faulty control computer in the Crescent Bioproducts factory outside Taniris City misrouting chemical
Thread 47.1008.183647.221 did not have a narrative thread of consciousness. It was a mere expediter, unconsciously sapient, originating from the point within the Transcend’s functional soup where certain collected data matched a template laid down by higher level routines – familiar to its constituents as aspects of
Posting this one out of order, too, because it may be useful to have it up here in future, and – well, because having fictional people and real people call each other names just seemed fun to me when I was writing it up. So. Values Dissonance: In-world, plenty of it,
Asteroid Miners: Historically, yes. But the age of the hard-working, rugged asteroid miners, as opposed to asteroid settlers, was relatively brief – in the modern era, asteroid mining is the province of giant almost-completely-automated smelterships. Om nom nom.
FORKING. While under most circumstances – and where full dividuals are concerned – it is always correct to treat each and every fork of a given person as that person, as indeed will be the case after their remergence, there are certain special rules of etiquette that apply to the forks in
Asskicking Equals Authority: Played somewhat straight with the kaeth and their… kinesthetic leadership style, but subverted if you pay attention to the various underlying cultural mechanisms that ensure that asskicking gravitates towards the likely-to-be-competent-authorities.
“If you’ve come here to save the Galaxy, my innocents,” I said, “if you’ve come here with the illusion that you can save the Galaxy, or even so much as one single world, leave here right now. Cross the road, find the recruiting office, and join the Navy.